I came across this news posted on theonering.net website, and I thought it might be of interest.

£5m donation to university library

A rare collection of books and artefacts will be open to the public for the first time after a £5million donation was made to the famous Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

Original manuscripts from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein will be among a number of national treasures put on display in a new exhibition hall.

The donation by Julian Blackwell, president of the Blackwell's academic bookshop chain, is the largest yet made to a university library in the UK.

The redevelopment, called the New Bodleian Library, will enable priceless 400-year-old collections, which have previously only been accessible to a limited number of specialist scholars, to be put on permanent public display.

It was actually on the BBC news (on the TV) as well! Although, it made no mention of the source of the donation; or of 'Tolkien'. It did have footage of Shelley's handwritten manuscript though; as well as a Gutenberg Bible and a Shakespeare Folio etc.

BH

Posted on: 2008/3/9 3:06

_________________You drive a hard bargain – you can have it for £10 all-in – one consolation (for you) is that you do not have to hear the cries of my children, for bread...